CII meet focuses on hill tourism

A conference on tourism has called for efforts to bring Himalayan states like Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttaranchal on a single tourism circuit.

For this purpose, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has brought together top businessmen from the tourism industry from these states on a single platform to discuss strategies.

Uttaranchal Governor Sudershan Agarwal yesterday called upon all stakeholders to grab the moment and momentum and demonstrate an attitude to serve for the betterment of their regions.

Stating that community involvement, industry participation and the preservation of the environment were key areas of focus for sustainable tourism development, the governor stressed the need for developing state of the art infrastructure to attract tourists.

"Investment in tourism creates revenue as also employment opportunities for the youth," said the governor while delivering the valedictory address at the concluding session of the two-day conference on "Strategizing Hill Tourism" organised by the CII here.

Focusing on the hill states of Himachal Pradesh, J and K and Uttaranchal, the Conference highlighted the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) of these states towards an integrated marketing, with discussions on the issues in the planning, implementation and monitoring cycle in successfully developing the hill tourism products.

Vikram Bakshi, chairman, Tourism Sub-committee, CII, Northern Region, in his welcome address said that the aim of the conference is to determine synergies in the development of tourism and bring the hill states on to a single platform for policy formulation, promotion plans as well as infrastructure development.

He further added that tourism is an interdependent industry. Two key issues that should be looked into in the promotion of this sector include welfare of the local community and concern for enhancing the environment.

The need of the hour is to encourage private sector participation in creating infrastructural facilities.

Hemant K Arora, Chairman, CII Uttaranchal State Council highlighted the CII Tourism Vision 2020 and remarked that in the last four decades or so, a tourism revolution has been sweeping the world and if India has to partake in this revolution in a meaningful way, it must work on its strategies as well as techniques and tools of its machinery for implementation., he said.

The conference brought together experts from the government and tourism Industry on one platform, giving all a valuable opportunity to understand the vast changes in respect of objectives, contents and methods of tourism in the modern era.

The technical sessions at the Conference highlighted strategies on product development, emerging marketing communication strategies and new level growth for hill tourism.